As they walked back towards their barracks, Andries moaning incessantly about how heavy the backpack was and how he thought they should renegotiate the share each would receive, Mai opened her skills menu and read the descriptions of her new skills.

USE EXPLOSIVE was the first she opened. She only had one per cent in that skill since all she'd done was stick the explosive where Andries had told her. She didn't mind as at least she had the skill now. A skill that she knew most other workers didn't have.

This means I'll be able to work on more special projects and gain more ranks in that skill as a result. She felt quite smug about it.

The title of the skill was pretty much self-explanatory, and the description did little to expand upon it.

Use Explosive

The user of this skill will be able to craft and place explosives in such a way as to safely remove obstacles with as little explosive as possible. Safely is a subjective term and should be taken as a guarantee that using explosives isn't without considerable risk.

Not exactly reassuring, she thought. Probably deliberately so. People were stupid and common sense was often distinctly lacking in the general population. Afterall, she was stuck in the sewers due to a distinct lack of common sense herself.

Next she opened SCAVENGER.

Scavenger

Those possessing this skill have the ability to sniff out even the most well-hidden treasures. When PASSIVE the user will feel a gut instinct calling them to go a certain way, lift a certain stone. When ACTIVE the user will be able to accurately pinpoint the location of an item, as well as correctly assay its true value.

Out of all of the skills she had gained that day, Mai was particularly pleased with SCAVENGER. If Andries continued to take her on special missions she'd be able to amass far more spare credits than if she just hit quota.

"Why did I get Karma for that mission? What's the point of ranking in skills now that we’re indentured?" she asked as they entered the barracks area. "I've never had that come up before. And how do I rank up?"

"Probably because you've never completed a mission like that before," Andries stopped next to a public bench and sat down with a contented sigh. "Park your butt here for a few seconds."

She did as ordered, happy to let her aching legs finally get a rest.

"Growing up, you've always done task related things. Even when you were FREERUNNING you were doing it because you wanted to, so you gained experience, or Ranks, in that skill. When you were working as a cleaner, you gained Rank in that skill, or should have. But none of them had generic karma attached to them because they didn’t necessarily serve the Emperor.."

"What made this mission so special then?" interrupted Mai as she massaged her thighs.

"Fat plugs aren't fat bergs. Basic Sewer Workers, especially noobs such as yourself, don't get to clear fat plugs normally. Only workers like me, advanced, trusted, handsome," he flashed a grin, "get to work on fat plugs. So it was a task that was outside of your normal work duties. Therefore, when you completed it, you got generic karma."

"Great. But what’s the bloody point?”

"If you ever get out of here, by paying off your debt you’ll hopefully have a higher karma level than when you entered. Which means that you can hopefully avoid being sent to One Mile. Accrue enough karma and you can possibly live a good life.”

She could tell by his tone that he didn’t think it was a likely prospect. And she fully understood. They could accrue as much karma as they liked, but if they weren’t able to buy themselves out of indenture, it meant nothing. Absolutely nothing.

“What's your SCAVENGER skill at? Rank One, plus five per cent bonus?"

She nodded and opened up her skills menu. Clicking on the title, she then selected the Rank sub-menu.

"Says I'm one per cent, or level one in SCAVENGER and that I need another sixty experience points to progress to level two, or two per cent base skill," why she'd never even thought of looking into her skills in such a way she didn’t know. It hadn't ever felt as important to know what skills did and didn't do, and how to progress in them before now.

I didn't have a sister sitting alone in our apartment because of my poor impulse control before, she thought somewhat ruefully.

"Great, only spend the amount you need to, otherwise you'll lose the rest. Only ever progress in whole increments as you'll never have one point five per cent in a skill. It's either one per cent, two per cent, three per cent, or nothing."

Mai nodded and selected the small upward pointing double chevron next to her skill, bumping it up to two per cent by spending the fifteen experience points needed for the boost.

"What do I do with the spare forty points? Will I lose them?"

"No," he patted her thigh as he started to put his backpack on once more, "you never lose experience points. Just keep them until you have enough to progress a skill and spend them then. It's called banking. Come on, let's go sell this junk."

He stood up and led her through the various tunnels and side passages of what the Sewer Workers jokingly called Excretiaville. Despite the joke, it was indeed a full-sized town. Mai hadn't even started to scratch the surface of learning about it. As far as she could tell, there were at least five hundred sewer worker companies, and as far as she knew there were many more Excretiavilles, like this one, throughout the city.

Gradually the tunnels and side passages started to get narrower, dirtier, less crowded. Those workers that they passed quite often tried to hide their faces as if they didn't want anyone to know what they were up to.

"This Scavenger Queen, she's above board yeah?" she asked in a low voice as they passed through a small square filled with men and women bunched together in small groups. Four-legged chickogs squawked and barked at each other.

"Keep walking, don't make eye contact, chickog-battles aren't exactly against the rules, but they're frowned upon. And a lot of money can change hands," Andries placed a hand in the small of her back and kept her moving. "And don't even think about placing a bet. You get into debt with these people and you'll totally regret it."

They stepped through into a side street with dirty water cascading down the entrance, Mai shuddering at the touch of the slimy water.

"So, this Scavenger Queen, we're not going to get in trouble selling this stuff to her?"

"She's completely above board. Not sure how she got here, but every man and their dog sells their stuff to her. You can also buy some cool stuff from her if you have the money."

"What sort of stuff?"

"BIO-MASS BOOST, templates that aren't covered by the usual things Sewer Workers are offered. Booze, drugs, pretty much anything you want she usually has or can find for you," he stopped by a rust-stained hatchway. A glyph shone faintly, marking it as a General Store.

"Remember, knock three times, pause, then knock four," Andries raised a fist.

"Seriously?" she asked, heart pounding with excitement.

"Lol, no. It's a fucking shop, noob," Andries roared with laughter as he led her into the shop.

"Twat," Mai muttered under her voice as she followed him in. She paused, stunned by what she saw. In direct contrast to the dimly-lit corridors and passageways they'd been walking through, the store was well-lit. Ordered rows of shelves filled the entire store with barely enough room to squeeze between them. At the end of each row was an index sign, immediately allowing her to see what was on offer and where.

"Welcome to the store!" an old woman, hunched over so far that she was barely able to look up, came out from behind one of the shelves. "No food or drink allowed in the store and you buy what you break. Other than that, please feel free to browse. "

"Thank you," Andries replied, shrugging off his backpack. "But we're here to sell."

"Sell?" her head jutted forward just like a turtle’s. "Lay it out over there." Mai determined this must be the Scavenger Queen herself and not some lackey by her obvious enthusiasm.

They walked over to the long counter she indicated. Marble-topped, it was as spotless as the rest of the tables. Opening his pack, Andries started laying out the items they had found. It was utterly random, no rhyme nor reason as to what they found. Crooning, the Scavenger Queen started poring through the items. Hands moving faster and faster, she sifted the items into piles. As they grew, Mai was able to determine the categories they were being sorted into.

One was containers, metal. Another was containers, glass. Those were the biggest of the piles. In no time at all, the piles were sorted, and the Scavenger Queen was busy clacking away at an abacus, muttering under her voice and making copious notes. Finally, just as Mai was about to ask her what they could expect to get, she turned around.

"One thousand credits. That's my best offer. Try to haggle and I'll start charging you for my time," she gave a smile, revealing blackened teeth as she lifted her head as far as she could to look at them.

Mai shot a look over at Andries, "Really?"

He looked down, scuffing his feet, face colouring.

"Perhaps, ahem," he cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should renegotiate the terms of our deal."

"You fucking think?" she hissed at him. "Seventy, thirty. And you're the bloody thirty!" she jammed a finger hard into his chest. Mai was absolutely shocked with herself after the last time she did something like this to Andries, yet...no fine came up. She counted herself lucky.

Then again, it wasn’t as if prodding someone sharply was going to hurt them. Not like punching them, or ramming a heavy block of explosive into their chest.

"Seems fair," he muttered, rubbing at his chest.

"Sorry, didn't hear that," she jabbed him again, knowing she may very well be pushing her luck, but not caring at this point. "Do you, in front of our fabulous vendor, agree that I should get seventy per cent of what she's offering?"

"I do! Stop bloody jabbing me!" he batted at her hand, too slow to stop her getting a final poke to his chest in.

"Lovely," Mai turned to face the Scavenger Queen. "We'll take your gracious offer."

SALE COMPLETE!

+700UC

DO YOU WISH TO PUT THIS TOWARDS YOUR DEBT?

YES/NO?

"Oh hells no," she blink-clicked the NO, smiling as she saw the money enter her virtual bank. In the bank it would earn interest, allowing her to accrue even more credit for when she did finally use it to pay her debt.

Damned system isn’t going to trick me into impulse-based decisions, she thought, wondering how many other workers just clicked yes without a second thought.